Dragon Curse
by sexierthanthetardis
Summary: High school AU. Castiel suffers from an ancient curse. Destiel.
1. Chapter 1

Castiel stared at his reflection in the mirror, willing it to change. He knew getting frustrated wouldn't help, but being calm wasn't something he was really good at when he was like this. Through the door in his bedroom he heard his phone ringing, breaking his concentration.

"Hey, Cas, wanna go to the mall with us later?" Charlie said as soon as he picked up the phone.

"You know, you could wait for me to say hi back for once when you call," Cas said, smiling.

"Maybe next time. So do you wanna come or not?"

Cas sighed. "I can't. I've got the flu and my mom has me quarantined in the house again."

It wasn't totally a lie.

"Seriously? Didn't you have the flu like just last week or something?"

"No, that was mono from the water fountain in the gym that _you_ paid me $10 to lick."

Charlie giggled slightly at the memory of that.

"You really should have been smart enough to say no. I guess I'll just tell Dean you can't go. See ya at school Monday?"

"Hopefully," he replied honestly yet doubtfully.

Charlie hung up and he set his phone down. There was a small knock on his door, but he chose to ignore it. After a moment, his mom walked in.

"Was that your friends again?" she asked walking over to sit beside him on his bed.

He didn't reply. She frowned and ran her hand through his hair.

"I know you miss them. If it helps, this will all be over in a few more months, and then everything will go back to normal."

"I still can't control it," Castiel whispered, looking down at his hands. The blood red talons and shimmering scales were already reappearing.

It felt like years before all the changes went away again, but realistically it was just two days; two days of sitting in his room and willing himself to look human, like his mother had taught him to. He thought that he would feel better when he was at school with his friends, but he was very, very wrong.

"Anyone wanna catch a movie this weekend?" Dean said at the lunch table.

Charlie declined, saying that she had an anime convention to go to this weekend. Sam and Anna apologized before saying they had far too much homework to do, and Balthazar just complained that Dean had horrible taste in movies.

"What about you, Cas?" Dean asked, looking at his friend.

"What?" Cas said, looking up from his hands. He had been checking for any changes every two minutes or so all day.

"Do you wanna catch a movie this weekend?"

"Oh, sure." He said looking back to his hands again.

"You might want to prepare to go alone, Dean," Charlie said, "Cas's immune system has been kinda shitty lately."

Cas stuck his tongue out at her, and she playfully mimed him.

The bell rang for lunch to end and everyone started heading back to class. Before Cas entered his fifth period English class, he could see Charlie talking to Dean, who was clearly blushing, out of the corner of his eye. For a moment he wondered what they were talking about, but he quickly forgot, looking back at his hands again.

"I told you I'm fine!" Cas yelled, trying once again to reach for the doorknob.

"Castiel, you just got over a change eight hours ago!" she said, blocking the door again.

"Exactly. I'm fine now! If anything happens I'll just have him take me home. Please let me go; I haven't been out with my friends in months."

Castiel's mom sighed and moved away from the door. Cas smiled and waved goodbye to her as he ran out to the Impala that had been parked in his driveway for the ten minutes they had been arguing.

"What took you so long?" Dean asked when his friend hopped in the passenger side.

"I couldn't find my other shoe," he said lamely.

Dean gave him a face like he didn't believe he spent that long looking for his shoe, but then decided not to press the issue and started driving. They spent the entire drive talking and Cas was laughing about half of the time. He was so caught up in hanging out with one of his friends that he didn't even check his hands more than twice.

After about half an hour they pulled up to the cinema. They decided to see Thor 2, and after the movie was over they went out to grab a milkshake from the sonic down the street. Cas continued to check his hands frequently, and Dean began to notice but didn't bring it up. When they finished their shakes and continued talking, dean's phone buzzed. Dean checked his phone and blushed slightly before shoving his phone back in his pocket.

"Who was that?" Cas asked

"Charlie," Dean said, running his fingers through his hair like he does when he's flustered.

Cas was going to ask what she said when he felt his phone vibrate in his own pocket. He pulled out his phone to see a new message from Charlie.

**How's it goin with Dean?**

Cas quickly typed a response and put his phone back into his pocket.

"Who was that?" Dean asked.

"Charlie,"

"What'd she say?" Dean asked.

"She just asked how it was going; which is weird since she should be neck deep in yaoi right about now."

Dean gave a small laugh, knowing how Charlie tends to act at conventions. They continued to talk for a few more minutes before deciding to head home. When they were about 5 minutes from his house, Cas could feel an itch on the back of his hand close to his thumb. When they pulled up to his house, there was a small shiny scale on his hand, and Cas pulled the sleeve of his jacket down to cover it. When the car stopped, he quickly tried to exit, but Dean placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I had fun hanging out with you tonight. Just the two of us," Dean said.

"Me too," Cas replied.

"Would you want to, um, do that again soon. Like, maybe a date?"

Castiel paused from trying to escape for a second.

"Like a _date_ date?"

"Yeah," Dean said, "You know… if you're interested."

Cas grinned. "Definitely."

Dean grinned back and Cas hopped out of the car. He went upstairs to his room and flopped down on his bed, momentarily forgetting about his bodily transformation. He had had a (not so) tiny crush on Dean for a few years now, but he pretty much gave up on that years ago. After a few minutes, his phone buzzed again.

**Did that idiot man up and ask you out yet or do I have to kill him?**

Castiel grinned at the message, but then he noticed his entire left arm had already changed, bringing his good mood to a halt.


	2. Chapter 2

When Castiel regained consciousness he was scared. Everything in his bedroom had been strewn around and broken; even his bed was split up into pieces. He knew this stage was coming, where he would start destroying things, but what he wasn't expecting was the blood that covered everything.

"Mom!" He yelled, his voice cracking from tears.

His mother must have been standing at the door because she burst through the second he yelled. When she looked around she pulled her son into her arms, and he collapsed.

"What happened?" he asked, sobbing now.

"It's okay. Your claws haven't fully developed yet, so they probably broke off when you were ripping things. Don't worry. You're fine."

She continued to stroke his head for a few minutes as she assured him that he was fine.

"I want to die," he whispered.

"I know. Just trust me, Angel. It's going to get better. It'll get better."

He wasn't sure if she was trying to assure him or herself, so he nodded.

But he didn't believe it.

It took most of the week before Cas had a handle on his sudden monstrous rage outburst well enough that he could go to school. At least, he thought he had a handle on it. By the time lunch rolled around, he was seriously considering asking his mom to come get him so that he didn't accidentally kill someone. He probably would have, but he hadn't seen Dean all week and if he couldn't make it through one day of school then he mom definitely wouldn't let him go on their date Saturday.

"Well look who decided to come to school today," Charlie teased, moving over so he could sit between her and Dean.

Castiel rolled his eyes at her and sat down next to Dean. Dean reached over and grabbed his hand under the table, making Cas smile despite the practically uncontrollable anger that he had barely be suppressing all day. The group ate and laughed for a few minutes before Justin Irvin, that annoying close-minded bastard that everyone in the school hates, walked by their table.

"Oh look, it's a couple of stupid fags."

Castiel's hand tightened, a bit too tightly, around Dean's.

"Just ignore him. He's an idiot," Dean whispered to his friend.

"And now the fags are talking about something," He leaned over their table, his face only about two inches away from Dean, "What are you telling him? How much you like it up the ass?"

Cas blacked out.

When he woke up, he was in the nurse's office and Dean was leaning over him. He looked down at his hands and they were covered in bloody gauze.

"What happened?" Cas asked; his throat felt dry and painful.

"Irvin said something and you two got into a fight. Well, more like you were fighting and he was lying there crying. You split your knuckles open and someone landed a kick on your stomach that made you cough some blood. After that you passed out."

Cas took a moment to let that sink in before, despite himself, he started to cry. Dean pet his friend's head and tried to calm him down.

"Is he okay?" Cas asked after a few minutes when he found his voice again.

"You broke a couple bones and smashed his face up pretty good, but that's about it. He deserved it anyways; he's been bullying everyone since like 6th grade."

Cas started to calm down a little. He was very relieved that he didn't accidentally kill the kid in his outburst.

"Also, you've been expelled," Dean added when his friend stopped crying.

"Yeah," Cas said, "I figured that."


	3. Chapter 3

It took three weeks after the Irvin incident for Cas to get his anger more or less under control. When he finally made it 24 hours without breaking anything in the house (besides an old lamp that he bumped into by accident), his mom agreed to let him go on his date with Dean, so long as he agreed to come home if anything happened.

Castiel gave his mom a hug and ran out the door to the Impala sitting in his driveway. When he hopped in the passenger's seat, Dean gave him the biggest smile.

"Look's like you're feelin' better," he said, pulling out onto the road.

"A lot better," Cas said, also smiling.

They talked about what school had been like while Castiel was gone until they pulled up at the bowling alley. They rented some bowling shoes and picked out their bowling balls; Cas went with a green ten pound ball and Dean picked a dark red twelve pounder. After six lanes, Cas had had all strikes and Dean had managed to hit a grand total of four pins.

"Have you ever been bowling before?" Cas asked after Dean bowled yet another gutter ball.

"Every other weekend since I was six 'til I was ten. Believe it or not I used to be worse. What about you?"

"This is my first time," Cas said, bowling another strike.

Dean rolled his eyes and Cas chuckled. By the end of the game, Cas hadn't missed any pins and Dean managed to know over seven pins total. (Although he counts it as eight since one pin really should have been knocked over.) When they were done they headed down to the waffle house down the street and ordered chocolate chip pancakes for Dean and a plate full of bacon for Cas.

"Hungry?" Dean said after Cas finished his last piece of bacon?

Cas looked down at his empty plate and then at Dean's which only had about four bites taken out of it. he shrugged. He hadn't felt hungry but lately he had been devouring meat like he had three stomachs. They talked and laughed for an hour or so before they decided to head home. When they got in the car, Dean looked over to his friend.

"So did you have fun?" he asked, a very slight blush appearing on his freckled cheeks.

"Definitely," Cas replied.

Dean smiled, and then looked down at his friend's lips. For a moment, Castiel was confused and he only barely had time to close his eyes before Dean's lips pressed against his. When they pulled back, both boys were blushing and smiling uncontrollably.


	4. Chapter 4

Under normal circumstances the ride home from Waffle House would have only taken about twenty minutes, but there was a major wreck on the main road, so Dean decided to take a really long back road back to town, lengthening the ride by about half an hour. At first, neither of the boys was really upset about the extra driving; it only meant that they would have more time to talk. For the first ten minutes of the ride everything was fine, but then Cas looked down and noticed that his fingernails were turning deep red.

"You okay?" Dean asked when Castiel was quiet for a little too long.

"Yeah," Cas said, pulling the sleeves of his jacket over his hands, "Just feeling a little sick."

"Not surprising with how much bacon you ate."

Cas faked a laugh and the two continued driving. After a few minutes Castiel could feel his claws trying to push through his sleeves. In his head he was panicking. He could feel scales appearing on his hands and arms. He tried to stay calm, knowing that getting scared would only make things worse, until he heard the sound of the engine giving up as they ran out of gas.

"I think were out of gas," Dean said, stating the obvious.

Castiel's breathing accelerated in panic. He was thankful that it was dark already as more blood red scales appeared under his shirt and up his neck. Frantically, he pulled his hood up over his head to cover the scales making their way up his face.

"Hey, are you okay man?" Dean asked, leaning over to his friend.

Cas took in a deep breath, seeing only one option.

"Please don't scream," Cas said, pulling back hood.

"You're being ridiculous!" Cas yelled.

His mother rolled her eyes as she locked the door to the closet she threw Dean into moments earlier.

"Well what do you want me to do?"

"How about let him go home."

"You know we can't do that. He knows now. He could be a slayer for all we know."

"Seriously, Mom," Cas said, "If he was a slayer don't you think he would have killed me back in the middle of nowhere when he noticed I was a fucking lizard!"

"Watch your temper! This isn't safe; even if he isn't a slayer, he could tell someone and then we'll have slayers beating down our doors in under a week!"

"You are over exaggerating!"

"Um," Dean said through the closet door, "It sounds like you guys are having a serious conversation, but if anyone cares I'm claustrophobic."

"Mom, you can't just keep him locked in a closet. Do you _want _the cops coming here?"

Castiel's mother sighed before unlocking the door to the closet. Dean stumbled out, looking a little pale.

"I recommend that you don't speak of this with anyone," Cas's mother said to Dean who nodded nervously.

"I'll walk him out," Cas said, taking his friend's hand.

Castiel took Dean outside to his car that was still running in the driveway.

"I'm sorry about… well everything," Cas said, preparing to walk back inside.

"Don't be. That was the most interesting night I've had in a while."

Dean leaned in and placed a quick kiss on Castiel's lips.

"You're not… freaked out by me?"

"Not really. You're like, part lizard or something? I took Allanah to the homecoming dance last year and she kept a turtle in her dress for like, half the dance. Everyone is a little strange."

Cas smiled as Dean got in the Impala. Dean signed Call me as he backed out of the driveway and Cas made his way inside, preparing for the earful he was about to get from his mother.


End file.
